Fishing Report

Good morning from the Quiet Lakes, some cloud cover and a chance of rain later today and tonight should be a welcome change for anglers!  It looks like most of the rain they had forecasted for the week is not going to happen now, which is disappointing, but I do see a 33% chance on Friday.  Temps are cooler overall with highs topping out in the upper 70s and lows getting down into the 40s.  That will help keep the water temps in check as they have creeped up to the upper 70s as well.  Lake levels are very low all over, with most lakes down about a foot to a foot and a half, and some even lower than that.  I think I heard the flowage is down about two and half feet or so.  

Musky–The musky bite has been okay and anglers (at least on our musky board) are seeing almost all of their fish on blades of all kinds.  Bucktails, spinnerbaits, and chatterbaits all seem to be moving fish right now.  Ripping rubber through the weeds and over structure is working for anglers as well.  Look for fish up in or on top of the structure or just off the edges.

Pike–Pike have been active and anglers are finding them mostly while musky fishing using bucktails and spinnerbaits.  Paddle tail swimbaits on jigheads have also been great for catching pike so far this year.  Look for pike in and around weeds of all kinds, including cabbage, coontail, lily pads, and milfoil.

Walleye–It sounds like the walleye have gotten lockjaw lately, which is not a total surprise in the heat of summer.  Walleye most likely are in deeper water or roaming basins right now, and trolling crankbaits, pulling bottom bouncers with spinner rigs and crawlers or minnows, or jigging plastics off of deeper structure can all work.  A good starting point would be to look for fish anywhere from 12-20 FOW.

LMB–Largemouth have been active and plastics have been the hot bite. Wacky rigged plastic worms seem to be working the best to catch largemouth right now, but the topwater and live bait bite should be going strong as well.  Look for largemouth in shallow weeds such as cabbage and lily pads, or shoreline bulrushes or even in and around timber that has fallen into the water.

SMB–A few anglers have done well catching smallies on topwater baits, but most are finding smallies related closer to bottom or suspended off of edges.  Prop style top water baits seem to be a favorite of smallies on the topwater side, while jig/plastic combos seem to work best for suspended or bottom related fish.  Work steep rocky shorelines, mid lake reefs, or weed beds depending on how the lake is setup.

Crappie/Bluegill/Perch–The panfish bite has slowed down a bit as well over the past week, and it seems like panfish have pushed down into the weeds and have become lethargic.  Some anglers have done okay fishing above the weeds for crappie and are picking off a few here and there.  ‘Gills have also been in and around weeds and anglers are catching them on jigs tipped with waxies or small pieces of nightcrawlers.  Perch have been more active on a minnow bite and both crappie minnows and fatheads have been working.  Anglers should find perch on the deeper weed edges of beds or reefs adjacent to basins.

Not much has changed from last week, and I think we need a big weather event to shake things up and get fish moving.  Unfortunately I don’t see that happening anytime soon!  Have a great weekend everybody.

Greg 

Good afternoon from the Quiet Lakes, we had a great week of vacation with great company, and were getting things back in order which is why the report is later than normal. Beautiful weather on tap for the Northwoods this weekend and coming week with highs in the upper 70s and lows in the low 50s.  Wednesday might bring some rain but that’s about it.  We did get a downpour for about 15 minutes yesterday and it was enough to run the bilge pump on the boat, but did not do much to help the grass or the lakes.  Water temps are right in the mid 70s, but the lakes are WAY LOW.  I think the Chip is down about 2 feet and the Quiet Lakes and Spider chain are probably about a foot and a half low.  Fishing has been pretty good and with the stable weather and cool nights should continue to be.

Musky–The musky action hasn’t been super hot, but fish are moving.  I raised two fish on bucktails and had another follow from a small fish on a jig and crawler.  We found all of our musky off of shallow weedy points, reefs or weed beds.  

Northern pike–Our group managed to catch a handful of pike on all different lures, including jigs/swimbaits, spinnerbaits, and chatterbaits.  All of the pike were found in and around weeds as well anywhere from 3-10 FOW.

Walleye–The walleye bite has been pretty tough lately, our group only caught one undersized fish, and I have not heard much of a bite from anyone else.  Walleye should be off of deeper rocks and jig/livebait or plastic combos should catch fish.  We tried trolling basins and little bit as we were seeing lots of balls of baitfish, but had no luck.

LMB–Largemouth have been active and anglers have been doing well on jig/swimbait combos, wacky rigged worms, and spinnerbaits and chatterbaits.  We found all of our largemouth in weeds or on weed edges in anywhere from like 6-10 FOW.

SMB–Smallies have been active and we had luck on livebait and artificial baits.  Mini-mite jigs tipped with leeches worked well for us, as my nephew caught a bruiser of a smallie in about 5 FOW on one.  Unfortunately we are done with leeches for the year here at our bait shop.  Others in our group got some smallies on I believe a beetle spin cast out on the deep weed edge.

Crappie–Piles of crappies were caught on beetle spins this week and on jigs tipped with waxies, or on mini-mite jigs under a float.  Crappie were in like 8-12 FOW on the deeper weed edges adjacent to deep water basins.

Bluegill/Perch–We did manage a few gills and perch, but not in the abundance you would expect.  Most of the panfish were pretty small and went back into the lake.  We found some gills in and around weeds in 5ish feet of water.  Small jigs and crawlers worked best for panfish.  

That is all I have for this week’s report.  Have a great weekend and we will talk soon.

Greg